Fears are growing that rising gasoline prices could stifle economic recovery. Those rising gasoline prices are becoming a subject of hot political debate in a presidential election year. Geopolitics is behind the rising prices, most noticeably due to the increasing tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.

The shale gas energy industry needs to put in place better practices and reporting about "fracking" before public concerns delay or even stop use of the technology that has created a boom in U.S. natural gas production, according to the MIT professor who led President Obama's subcommittee on shale gas.

While U.S. drivers continue to cut back at the pump, refiners are increasingly sending more gasoline and diesel fuel overseas, making the U.S. a net exporter of refined products for the first time in more than a half century.

Daniel Yergin shared his thoughts with CNBC on some of the hot topics in the energy world. Yergin is the author of the new best-seller "The Quest: Energy Security and the Remaking of the Modern World," the successor to his Pulitzer Prize winning book, "The Prize."